Overview

Backstory

Konoe Ayatsuki Mercury, more commonly known as Nine the Phantom, is one of the main antagonists of BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Jubei's estranged wife, and one of the few wielders of true Magic in her home series. A member of the Six Heroes and Ten Sages; Nine's work on creating the Nox Nyctores, weaponry derived from the true Magic she held mastery in, allowed her and her colleagues to stave off the world ending calamity known as "The Black Beast". While victorious in her endeavors at fighting the monster back, a traitor amongst the Six Heroes' ranks caused her death and subsequent descent into madness.

Having been brought back to life years later with the knowledge of her world's endless cycles of life and death, Nine would fight with the fervor of a wrathful phantom so that she might burn it all to ash for the sake of creating it anew for her and her little sister. All those who don't fall in line with her plans would be incinerated like the rest.

Playstyle

Due to the changes to her Spell system from her home series, Nine has went from being an oppressive force that can control 100% of the screen to being a bit more limited and defensive in nature. Given the time and the right setup, however, she can easily begin to snowball due to her still impressive slew of Spells.

While she lacks a run, her unique movement in her teleport dash allows her to force opponents to whiff attacks and disorient them, while each of her variety of attacks gives her a host of options to deal with many situations that could threaten her. While on point, Nine can take advantage of her partner's assists to begin taking advantage of her variable spell system and bombarding the opponent with spells left and right. As an assist, she lends valuable aid with a powerful anti-air, a 2-hitting charge that works well for cross combos, and a large, delayed projectile that tracks along a good portion of the screen.

If there were one glaring weakness in the Phantom's options, it would be that she is best only at mid-ranges during neutral situations. Her normals are significantly slower than most, leading to her struggling if the opponent gets too close. Still, with the wide array of spells, potential for high damage, and even unblockables at her disposal, this witch has the ability to grind anyone under her heel.

Strengths/Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Rather long range on her spells and normals.

Two anti airs to help discourage jump ins, if 4A is blocked she can continue into a blockstring.

Has an unblockable setup in the corner, that also leads into safe jump and catches all techs.

Style.

Variety of spells can make her pressure and active switch abilities dangerous.

A LOT of oki options.

Can teleport, which is invul till she stops.

She is more defensive than some characters, as her buttons are slow.

Is more difficult to play compared to other characters.

Needs to call people out well or make good reads, reacting too slow will get her murdered.

A floaty jump and bad mobility outside of teleport.

Ability: The Abyss Diver

Continuing her trend from Central Fiction of being like nobody else, Nine does not possess static 236x specials. Instead, her specials are dynamic and are, again, tied to her normal attacks.

Unlike in her home series, she does not gain differing spells depending on the specific combination of normal attacks she uses. Instead, she has a new secondary bar (which will be called her 'Mana Gauge' for simplicity's sake) that will begin to fill up with every normal attack that Nine connects with, with her spells changing depending on how much Mana she has stored. This change removes the need to worry about having to press specific buttons to get your desired spell, and streamlines the spellcasting process as a whole.

Citrine of Change

Much like in BBCF, it reflects projectiles. However, it no longer advances but the mirror has a hitbox. Long hitboxes can go through it and so can certain projectiles.

A mirror that reflects projectiles and knocks enemies down and disappears upon physical contact. If a projectile comes into contact with the mirror, it'll fire a projectile that can be blocked and causes a long stagger.